Tuesday, January 28, 2003

By the way, with my junior Senator attracting praise
from left Blogistan for his current opposition to Bush foreign policy,
let's put that in perspective. Last October, he gave a speech on the
floor of Congress which expressed similar sentiments:

In giving the President this authority, I expect him to
fulfill the commitments he has made to the American people in recent
days--to work with the United Nations Security Council to adopt a new
resolution setting out tough and immediate inspection requirements,
and to act with our allies at our side if we have to disarm Saddam
Hussein by force. If he fails to do so, I will be among the first to
speak out.

If we do wind up going to war with Iraq , it is imperative that we
do so with others in the international community, unless there is a
showing of a grave, imminent--and I emphasize ``imminent''--threat to
this country which requires the President to respond in a way that
protects our immediate national security needs.

He gave that speech to try to explain his vote for a resolution
which authorized Dubya to make war on Iraq whenever he felt like it,
without any of those restrictions --- well after Dubya's mendacity on
Iraq, as on other matters, had been made
clear...

Kerry speech from the Congressional Record, Oct. 9th;
available by search from Thomas,
though I'm not sure the links it gives you are stable...